Word of the Day

Thursday, December 09, 2004

solecism

\SOL-uh-siz-uhm\ , noun;

A nonstandard usage or grammatical construction; also, a minor blunder in speech.

A breach of good manners or etiquette.

Any inconsistency, mistake, or impropriety.

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Quotes:

An accurate report of anything that has ever been said in any parliament would be blather, solecism, verbiage and nonsense.

-- "Hansard of the Highlands", Times (London), February 17, 2001

Her English is good, apart from a few stubborn idiosyncrasies of preposition and tense, but these are music to me, sung solecisms -- how else to describe "I am already loving you," her first declaration of feeling for me, now two years old?

-- Ronan Bennett, The Catastrophist

In those days smoking in the streets was an unpardonable solecism.

-- Edmund Yates, Recollections

. . .another of her fabrications or flat-footed solecisms or, at any rate, a simple indication of the boundless ineptitude with which she manages Leonardo's affairs.

-- R.M. Berry, Leonardo's Horse

Origin:

Solecism comes from Latin soloecismus, from Greek soloikizein, "to speak incorrectly," from soloikos, "speaking incorrectly," literally, "an inhabitant of Soloi," a city in ancient Cilicia where a dialect regarded as substandard was spoken.